Impact of Online Learning Experience During COVID-19: Exploring the Relationship Between Academic Resilience, Academic Self-Efficacy, and Perceived Social Support
The COVID-19 pandemic, one of the worst global health crises of this century, has dramatically transformed the lives, functioning, and behaviors of university stu-dents. After Singapore went into lockdown on April 7, 2020, universities were forced to transition entirely to virtual delivery, with little time to prepare lessons and assessments for implementation through online-based platforms (Crawford et al., 2020; Ng, 2021). This unexpected transition required faculty members to adjust and adapt their teaching styles and methods accordingly. At the same time, students were expected to cope with a different learning mode and modality with which they had little or no experience (Bartusevičienė et al., 2021). When matters of life and death are at stake, focusing on academic goals may be more strenuous than ever (Besser et al., 2020). Mental health issues such as high levels of despair, anxiety, and perceived stress were also linked in university students during COVID-19, as found in studies conducted in various countries, including Saudi Arabia (Alyoubi et al., 2021), Bangladesh (Khan et al., 2020), and China (Jiang, 2020). According to Chen and Lucock (2022), more than half of the 1173 students ques-tioned in the study had levels of anxiety and depression that were over the clinically acceptable thresholds. The findings also indicated relatively low levels of resilience, which could be attributed to limitations and isolation that limited opportunities to participate in constructive coping mechanisms and activities. Hence, studying stu-dent academic resilience—the capacity to navigate challenges and adversities dur-ing education—is essential (Ang et al., 2021; Beale, 2020).
Given the uncertain future of the pandemic, there has been a dramatic increase in the adoption of online learning in higher education around the world. Multiple researchers have predicted that online education will become a mainstream and necessary tool for academia (Goh & Sandars, 2020; Palvia et al., 2018; Sobaih et al., 2020). Therefore, it is imperative to better understand the effects of online learning on students and its implications to develop responsive strategies and rec-ommendations. In the context of social distancing and pandemic-related stress, online learning has caused challenges for real-time interactions among peers, stu-dents, and lecturers, leading to a lack of social support for students (Ang et al., 2021; Means et al., 2020). Therefore, students must rely more on social support from family, friends, and or significant others (Mai et al., 2021).
Emerging research into online student learning has highlighted the importance of social support for students to cope with pandemic-related stress (Huang & Zhang, 2021). However, while external factors like perceived social support are worth exploring, internal factors like self-efficacy—which determines academic resilience (Cassidy, 2015)—also demand attention (Narayanan & Onn, 2016). To our knowl-edge, academic resilience has not received much attention in COVID-19-related research. Therefore, the main aim of the current study is to address this gap by examining whether perceived social support and self-efficacy mediate the link between online student learning and academic resilience.
Online Learning Experiences During COVID-19
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, exclusively online learning for local universities was uncommon (Müller et al., 2021). Research from the pre-pandemic period indi-cates both benefits (Seiver & Troja, 2014) and challenges resulting from online learning (Hodges et al., 2020; Martin et al., 2017). For example, in a study by Means et al. (2020), undergraduates’ satisfaction ratings with their courses dropped dra-matically (from an original satisfaction rating of 50% to 19%) after the forced shift to online learning. Students’ attitudes toward online learning also shape student experiences, as shown by Aguilera-Hermida (2020), who found that student atti-tudes toward a specific mode of lesson delivery (mainly face-to-face) were corre-lated with their motivation, cognitive engagement, and self-efficacy for learning. Lack of motivation was rated as the most pressing challenge that many students faced (Jaggars et al., 2021; Means et al., 2020; Tichavsky et al., 2015). In addition, the lack of daily class routines and studying in non-academic environments due to pandemic lockdowns have exacerbated this by causing a significant loss of focus for many (Ang et al., 2021; Bartusevičienė et al., 2021; Means et al., 2020). Many stu-dents have also had to deal with the loneliness and isolation that come with follow-ing rules that call for social or physical seclusion. Circumstances that have completely disrupted everyday routines can also cause stress and anxiety (Son et al., 2020).
Another frequently cited challenge of online learning is the absence of commu-nity building in the learning process (Jaggars et al., 2021). The lack of real-time interaction between students, teachers, and peers can also lead to delays in receiving constructive feedback for learning (Means et al., 2020) and undermine their under-standing of the subject matter (Aguilera-Hermida, 2020; Bartusevičienė et al., 2021; Dodd et al., 2021; Goh et al., 2020; Wut & Xu, 2021). In addition, interviews with teaching staff indicate that online teaching-learning outcomes are more student- dependent than face-to-face learning (Müller et al., 2021), suggesting that students should be more proactive in reaching out to their professors and peers virtually as they might in person (Goh et al., 2020).
These findings imply that the personal reach of teaching staff and support to students has been limited by the barriers to interaction characteristic of the virtual setting. It is also evident that the changes to study routines and the learning environ-ment imposed by the pandemic have caused dramatic disruptions to students’ moti-vation and self-regulation. While COVID-19 and its associated restrictions challenge student learning, it is also important to examine students’ internal factors that deter-mine how they are impacted, such as ability, resilience, and coping skills.
Academic Resilience
Abiola and Udofia (2011) describe resilience as inner strength, competence, opti-mism, and flexibility, comprising an effective coping mechanism for facing adver-sity. These qualities can minimize the impact of stressful life events and enhance the protective factors that improve one’s ability to deal with life’s challenges. Academic resilience is a type of resilience specific to the domain of education that promotes better academic achievement, engagement, and motivation—even in the face of stressful events that might otherwise cause poor performance or even dropping out (Hwang & Shin, 2018; Martin & Marsh, 2009). Highly resilient students are also more likely to set higher academic goals with determination to enhance their skills and knowledge and may therefore be more adaptive in educational settings (Choo & Prihadi, 2019; Kwek et al., 2013). A longitindual study conducted by Wu et al. (2020) examined the bidirectional relationship between resilience and mental health of university students in China. There was a significant reciprocal association between resilience and mental health status, showing that resilience predicted the degree of mental health status within 1 year and vice versa. However, when looking at 2 years, mental health was found to predict resilience level.
Self-regulated learning and self-efficacy are central concepts in the literature on academic resilience. For example, Martin and Marsh (2006) have proposed a “5-C” model consisting of five factors that are significant predictors of academic resil-ience: (1) self-efficacy; (2) commitment (also known as persistence); (3) coordina-tion (i.e., planning skills); (4) control (i.e., a combination of hard work and useful strategies helps one achieve); and (5) composure (i.e., low anxiety). Martin and Marsh (2006) further describe that academically resilient students tend to be highly self-efficient and disciplined, show great perseverance, are good in planning, and low in anxiety.
In the context of the pandemic, it could be argued that academic resilience is more indispensable now than ever. However, students are experiencing higher levels of academic stress during online distance learning (Quintiliani et al., 2021), and findings have shown that academic stress can stimulate negative emotions that are detrimental to learning and cause pessimistic evaluations of education (Kumalasari & Akmal, 2021).
Kumalasari and Akmal (2021) examined this question in a study of the effects of academic stress and academic resilience on online learning satisfaction. They found that satisfaction decreased with more academic stress, and academic resilience moderated the relationship, buffering against this reduction in satisfaction. Academically resilient students can also respond more adaptively to academic chal-lenges (for example, by considering difficulties as opportunities to improve or maintaining an optimistic belief that things will get better) and accordingly also tend to be more satisfied with their academic experiences (Hwang & Shin, 2018; Meneghel et al., 2019). Interestingly, a study by Ramadhana et al. (2021) highlights converging qualities between people who excel in an online learning environment and those with high academic resilience. They further found that online learning readiness was predictive of academic resilience. Academic Self-Efficacy
Academic self-efficacy is a student’s beliefs and confidence in their academic skills (Chemers et al., 2001; Khan, 2013). It is also one of the “5-C” characteristics described by Martin and Marsh (2006) as a significant predictor of academic resil-ience, describing an inherent human ability that can be cultivated as a buffer against stress and adversity (Narayanan & Onn, 2016). People with high self-efficacy can control their thoughts and emotions when facing challenges and are more likely to persist in their endeavors and rebuff pessimistic thinking about themselves and their capabilities (Ozer & Bandura, 1990). Stated, those who do not believe they can attain their goals will have little motivation to keep trying when faced with difficul-ties (Hamill, 2003). Cassidy (2015) showed that academic self-efficacy could predict academic resil-ience, finding that students with higher self-efficacy responded more positively to statements corresponding to high academic resilience than those with low self- efficacy. Chemers et al. (2001) found that academic self-efficacy correlates posi-tively with higher grades, greater academic expectations, and better performance. Self-efficacy is also crucial in determining how positive a student’s online learning experience will be (Albelbisi & Yusop, 2019; Alghamdi et al., 2020). Aguilera- Hermida (2020) found that prior experience with technology use before COVID-19 and attitudes toward online learning could influence students’ efficacy beliefs. Thus, the context carries weight in influencing students’ academic self-efficacy in online learning as well as in traditional classroom learning.